Day 1 ISTANBUL Tuesday
Upon arrival meet and greet at the airport and settle into your hotel in the old city. Welcome dinner will be at a restaurant that serves Imperial Ottoman Cuisine, incorporating Central Asian, Anatolian, Middle Eastern and Balkan flavours, resulting from the intensive research undertaken at three palace kitchens (Dolmabahce, Topkapi and Edirne) . Dinner will be accompanied and commented by our Culinary Experiences Specialist Ms. Selin Rozanes.
Day 2 ISTANBUL Wednesday
After your breakfast, your day will begin with a brief talk outlining the highlights of Turkish Cuisine, ancient and modern,with some suggestions about what to look for during your trip. You will tour the Spice Bazaar with Selin and stop at shops for tastings. The bazaar is often referred to as the "Egyptian Market" due to the fact that spices used to come to the market from India and Southeast Asia via Egypt. Despite the fact that the bazaar is becoming more touristy, there is still plenty to discover for the "foodie." We will stop at shops tasting and discovering some typically Turkish delicacies.
Then, you will have the opportunity to taste “Baklava” at a well known shop famous for their excellent “Baklava” from the city of Gaziantep with Turkish Tea. You will get on board a local ferry and disembark on the Asian side of Istanbul. After visiting some specialty shops walking through the colorful market of Kadiköy –an open air street market, very different from the Spice Market and more in tune with the way most Istanbullus cook and eat. You will walk on to a restaurant where the chef , one of Turkey’s foremost cooks who is devoted in letting the world know about the glorious food of his homeland. The ingredients used in the dishes travel from South Eastern Anatolia to arrive at your plate in Istanbul: aromatic red pepper, pistachios,chickpeas, olive oil and pomegranate molasses. After lunch and enjoying some very special deserts only available there we will take ferry back to the European side.
Day 3 ISTANBUL Thursday
After breakfast visit
St. Sophia, the church of the Divine Wisdom, the
Blue Mosque, a 17th century mosque that dominates the skyline of Istanbul and the Byzantine
Underground Cistern. For lunch you will taste delicious
Turkish kebabs. They specialize in dishes from the Gaziantep region in South-East Turkey synonymous with kebabs and you will also try
Cig kofte, Turkey's answer to steak tartare (lamb kneaded with spice and herbs). After lunch you will visit the magnificent
Topkapi Palace, the residence of the sultans for almost three centuries. Last, you will continue to explore ninety-two streets of the famous
Grand Bazaar. You will then proceed to your
Hands on Turkish cooking class at Selin Rozanes’s home. In the evening you will enjoy dinner and taste what you have cooked. You will have dinner at a Turkish home and enjoy wholesome homecooked specialties. A truly unique opportunity to experience Turkish hospitality and local home life.
Day 4 ISTANBUL Friday
Enjoy a unique sailing trip past the Prince’s islands aboard our sailing boat “BOLERO” enjoying the view while savouring an array of Turkish delicacies.Fresh air, islands, seagulls, the Istanbul shoreline at a distance. During the two or three hour sailing tour, enjoy a culinary journey on the Marmara Sea. You will disembark on the largest of the Princes’ Islands (Principio -Büyükada). Büyükada is a beautiful summer resort with ancient style wooden houses and old summer residences. There are no museums , no cars even just horses and carriages to get around ( the only alternative is riding a donkey), grand houses and mansions wreathed with wisteria, begonvilla, pine forests, cliffs.
On the island you will stroll through the pier to visit the island's local market and stop at specialty shops. A horse -drawn carriage will drive you throughout the pine woods. You will stop at Selin Rozanes’ summer house for tea and typical Turkish cookies.
After dinner including an assortment of mezes you will cruise back to town.
Day 5 ISTANBUL – CAPPADOCIA Saturday
In the morning transfer to the airport for your flight to Cappadocia. Upon arrival to Kayseri Airport you will be met and transferred to visit a very interesting local market. In Cappadocia we will focus on the very particular culture and foods of Anatolia.
We’ll begin with a visit to a local market and then join a cooking demonstration in a home with village women They will show us how to make manti, a traditional dish whose heritage stretches back in to the Central Asian origins of modern Turkey. Then, you will walk in Ayvali village, where you will watch the villagers make salca (tomato paste) and pekmez (grape molasses) (Only in September). Lunch will be in the home of your hosts .
Then we will introduce you to the lunar landscape of Cappadocia at Dervent Valley, and we head on to Zelve Open Air Museum, which is one of the earliest inhabited and latest abandoned monastic settlements of Cappadocia. Seeing the best examples of the fairy chimneys at Pasabag Fairy Chimneys Valley, we drive further to Avanos. From here you will stop at Avanos, a centre of terracotta art since 2,000 BC, for a demonstration in a traditional pottery workshop. Then we will try our hands at it under the supervision of a master potter.
Before dinner you will stop at a Winery. This is the biggest and oldest winery (since 1943) of Cappadocia. We will have a detailed tour of the winery while tasting their local wines. The Öküzgözü-Bogazkere combinations (grapes native to Turkey) are quite promising.The family-operated winery is located underground, carved in natural rock. This natural cellar also provides excellent storage conditions for the wine.
Day 6 CAPPADOCIASunday
BALOON TRIP - OPTIONAL
Early morning transfer to the balloon launching site to meet the balloon crew. The gentle and stable wind conditions are ideal during the first few hours of the day in Cappadocia. It is also the ideal time for photography,with splendid colours and contrasts. The deep canyons and gentle winds carry you over places that could never be reached except by balloon. After flying over Cappadocia for about one hour, you will land to an awaiting champagne breakfast!
After breakfast our tour begins with a descent towards the centre of the earth, with a trip to the Underground City of Kaymakli; one of the largest and deepest of Cappadocia’s many such settlements. From here we drive to Ihlara Canyon, walking through the canyon via the Steps of Anatolia to Belisirma village, the ancient Peristrema. Set by the Melendiz River this is known as the “Valley of the Sky”. Churches carved from the rocks form a gallery of early paintings that are remarkable for their accuracy. We lunch in Belisirma at a local restaurant by the river. On the way back to , we visit the beautiful village of Selime.
Today at dinner you will taste the delicious Testi Kebab- Pot Kebab (meat stew cooked in a seamless pot, broken with a hammer upon service) as well as varieties of Turkish meze selections and local Cappadocian wine.
Day 7 CAPPADOCIA / IZMIR/ KUSADASI Monday
This morning take flight to Izmir. Then check in to your hotel in Sirince village. The village is a perfect synthesis of Turkish and Greek culture as of the 1920s. After the Independence War, there was a “people exchange” between the Greeks and Turks and many typical Greek houses, though they kept their original outside characteristics, have been remodeled to local preferences on the inside. Fruit flavoured Wines is the specialty of this village.
After lunch and a short rest drive to an Ecological Organic Farm nearby. Walk around the farm to meet the people who work at the farm and watch the preparation of organic products. Tonight dinner composed of organic products will be at the farm .
Day 8 KUSADASI / BODRUM Tuesday
In the morning visit Ephesus, one of the most incredible archaeological wonders of the world. You will then drive to Bodrum for lunch.
Lunch will be at a very popular among the residents of Bodrum for lunch. Owner brings together local Bodrum women as his 'tasters' to maintain the quality and consistency of his food and personally selects the best olive oil and the freshest herbs and vegetables from the markets around.
After a short rest you will drive to a small village in Ortakent, Yarbasan which is a candidate for the AgaHan prize this year, each home in this village is a replica to the original ancient homes of the region.
You will learn how to cook samples from the Aegean Turkish Cuisine with lots of olive oil and herbs with chef owner Mrs. Aslı Mutlu. For dinner you will taste what you have prepared.
Day 9 BODRUM – ISTANBUL Wednesday
After breakfast you will visit The Bodrum Castle that occupies the tip of the wedge-like peninsula at the center of Bodrum which has a massive conglomeration of courtyards, turrets, galleries and sunken gardens and see the collections of the Museum of Underwater Archeology, located inside the Castle.
Then you will enjoy a cruise around the bays of Bodrum with lunch on board. .
Late afternoon drive to the airport to take your flight to Istanbul. Farewell dinner and overnight Istanbul.
DAY 10 ISTANBUL Thursday
You will be transferred to the airport for your departure flight. Departure transfer
Accommodation (HB)
customary tips
